Use of the Family Voice Norfolk logo

Family Voice Norfolk works with Norfolk County Council, health services and the voluntary sector to ensure that the experiences and views of families with a child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are taken into account when services are being planned, created, delivered or discussed.

As you know, the range of needs of families with SEND is huge – no two families are the same. Views are wide, too, and sometimes conflicting. We do our best to represent the majority and to take into account the wider picture. That would include, for example, an understanding that resources for SEND are not unlimited, improvement can sometimes take a long time, and national and local policies change.

As a result, although we hope that our input always makes a positive difference for families, it is rarely the case that we feel that a piece of work is perfect in every way and delivers all that we would wish. The general public does not see how we have been involved and what influence we have had. There is always room for something better. Nor do we usually have any control at all over the way in which work we have been involved in is used, publicised, referenced or connected to other initiatives.

We are transparent about the fact that although some of our funding comes from the Department for Education, some also comes from Norfolk County Council and the Clinical Commissioning Group(s) in Norfolk. We are aware that some people question whether we can be truly challenging because of this. We aim to work with the LA and other services but not for them.

We ask, as a matter of courtesy, that third parties ask us before including our name in lists of those who have contributed to a piece of work, but we are open about work we have done, so this is usually not a problem. However, use of our logo implies a greater degree of involvement and looks like an endorsement. For all the reasons above, we decided some time ago that rather than making frequent difficult decisions about when it is appropriate for our logo to be used, we would be very clear that it is only used on documents that we ourselves have created and, occasionally, to publicise events where we have a specific part to play.

Our reason for being clear about this is the same as our reason for everything we do: we want as many parent carers as possible to share their experiences with us, so that we can represent them where decisions are made and improve services for their families.

Please click here to read the logo policy.